The present invention relates to a collecting device for suspended particles.
For collecting particles suspended in a gas such as the atmosphere, a conventional method wherein a gas is sucked to pass through a filter so that particles in the gas are collected has been used widely.
The inventor has proposed a device for collecting suspended particles in the atmosphere. The device includes a collecting container for sucking the atmosphere therein with a pump; a discharge electrode for generating single polar ions inside the collecting container; and a collecting electrode having a potential difference relative to the discharge electrode. The collecting device charges the particles suspended in the atmosphere sucked inside the collecting container, thereby collecting the particles on the collecting electrode.
In the conventional method of collecting the particles suspended in the gas using the filter, it is difficult to extract the collected particles from the filter. When a microscope is used to observe the particles, the observation has to be performed on the filter. In that case, it is difficult to observe the particles because images of the particles become a blur due to the filter as a background. Further, when the collected particles are subjected to chemical analysis with various types of analytical instruments, it is substantially impossible to analyze the collected particles because it is difficult to separate an individual particle from the filter.
The proposed device can extract each particle easily because the particles are collected on a surface of the collecting electrode. Thus, it is easier to use various types of analytical instruments for the chemical analysis. Also, when the collecting electrode is formed of a transparent material, the microscope can be used to observe the collected particles directly, thereby obtaining clear images of the particles. However, the proposed device collects all the particles in the gas, and can not selectively collect particles with diameters in a specific range.
An object of the present invention is to provide a device for selectively and efficiently collecting particles suspended in the gas according to particle diameters in a desired range. Therefore, it is easy to observe the collected particles by a microscope, and to extract an individual particle for various types of analyses and measurement of a particle size distribution.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.